| In this paper, I use a unique survey on illegal immigrants apprehended in Italy to investigate migrants expected wages at the intended destination. The results show that – taking into account individual?s human capital – a large part of immigrants overestimate the wage they could earn in Italy. We find that expected wages are positively affected by migration network and previous experience. When migrating within a network, skilled migrants do not expect higher wages compared to unskilled ones probably anticipating the ‘skill waste’ associated with the illegal status. |
Abstract
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